A History Steeped in Project Management Transformation

NK Shrivastava founded RefineM in 2011, fulfilling a long-held dream to create a project management consulting and training firm focused on driving business results.

In his 20+ years overseeing projects—from small initiatives to multi-year, multi-million dollar, multi-national endeavors—NK has seen that while the project management function, overall, has matured over time, its demands have increased, and so too has the project failure rate, estimated by industry experts to now be at 70 percent.

“Why do so many projects fail? It can be a struggle for project teams to determine what’s mission-critical and what’s not. Skipping essential processes can lead to project failure, but, on the flip side, a complex or unnecessary process wastes time, annoys teammates and hurts credibility,” said NK. “I focus my practice on helping project managers perform only high-value processes, not too many—not too few—keeping it very simple, strategic and incredibly efficient. This is the key to project success.”

Turning Project Management into a Competitive Advantage

Are you frustrated watching your team continue to “hit-or-miss?” We consult project managers offer Agile coaching to help organizations develop systems, processes, resources and talent to drive project success. With RefineM on your side, your team will learn to focus on what is essential, use simple but effective tools and techniques, and shift from reactive to strategic thinking—lowering the stress level for all.

Our mission is to help organizations turn their project managing capabilities into a competitive advantage.

We achieve this by implementing the best practices through a very simple yet effective refinement process. Our consultants listen to our customers and then develop a roadmap to take their processes to the next level.

We follow widely accepted frameworks, tools and techniques such as A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), LEAN, and Six Sigma. We differentiate ourselves by our ability to listen and make changes that get to the core of the issue.

Consistent Values that are Consistent with Your Needs

Our values are our building blocks.

We believe in SIMPLICITY. Our project management solutions are simple but effective. They produce the desired results.

We believe INTEGRITY can’t be compromised. We say what we do, and do what we say, keeping things straight for everyone.

We believe FLEXIBILITY helps us adapt quickly to the needs, which in turn helps us build long-lasting mutually beneficial relationships.

Top-Notch Consultants

RefineM brings together a team of specialized consultants to offer knowledge, skills and capabilities custom-tailored to the unique needs of our clients.

All our consultants have earned certifications from the Project Management Institute (PMI)® and most of them are PMI® members and volunteers. They value and enjoy what they do every day.

Our consultants use widely accepted premier project management and process improvement frameworks, tools and techniques—in combination with the kind of expertise that can only come from decades in the field. Our experience allows us to quickly hone in on critical success factors to deliver results in a fraction of the time of less experienced professionals.

The PMBOK® Guide is our guiding framework for managing projects and providing consultations. We also use LEAN and Six Sigma frameworks in process improvement projects. We use MS Project and MS Office as primary tools to manage projects as well as providing mentoring and coaching in project management areas. Our consultants are also experts in Agile methodology.

"Project managers need to move fast and decisively. They need simple tools that are ready to go."

—Michelle Maas, MBA, PMP

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We believe Agile can significantly improve a team’s capability to deliver tangible outcomes quickly. In fact, because we are so committed to developing Agile capabilities—and to accelerating business outcomes—we are pleased to offer our clients new Outcomes-based pricing as part of our Agile Transformation practice.